There have been a number of conferences which have looked at different aspects of living/working with children and young adults with Pathological Demand Avoidance Syndrome. The last conference held on 26th January 2011 was organised by The National Autistic Society in association with NORSACA and the Elizabeth Newson Centre.
Comments on the conference made by members of the PDA Contact Group who attended can be found on our forums here.
The National Autistic Society has posted some videos filmed at the conference.
Francesca Happé, Professor of Cognitive Neuroscience, MRC SGDP Centre, Institute of Psychiatry, King's College London addressed the conference in a session titled New research ideas and questions about PDA. In this interview she talks about the lack of research into PDA, despite the huge amount of interest from parents and clinicians. In particular, she notes that research needs to address what underlies demand avoidance behaviour, and whether there is overlap with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) in terms of an inability to see things from others’ point of view (sometimes described as impaired 'Theory of Mind').
Phil Christie, Consultant Child Psychologist and Director, The Elizabeth Newson Centre delivered a session called Towards a better understanding of pathological demand avoidance. Here he talks about the book 'Understanding Pathological Demand Avoidance Syndrome in Children' Jessica Kingsley Publishers "Essentials" series which is due to be published in September 2011. This book is a collaboration of several authors, Ruth Fidler, Phil Christie, Zara Healey and Margo Duncan, Coordinator of this group.
The full set of videos filmed at the conference can be found here:
PDA Conference 2011 on Vimeo
Details of any future conferences of interest will be published here as they become available